The M9 launched in the UK back in September last year and immediately caused a stir among rich photography enthusiasts and photojournalists alike. Since the beginnings of documentary and reportage photography Leica has been associated with nearly all of the medium's photographic icons. Back in the 1930s, Henri Cartier-Bresson produced nearly all of his famous photos using just a Leica III and a 50mm lens. Later some of the most important images of the Vietnam war were produced using Leicas. The size and weight of a Leica makes it extremely inconspicuous, allowing the photographer to fade into the background and not attract attention to himself. It also means the system is highly portable and lightweight, yet the build quality of the cameras mean they are robust and hardy.

For some, the Leica is a collector's item. Leica is one of the few camera systems that continue to hold their value if maintained properly. The launch of the M9 not only represents a landmark in the cameras available to journalists, but also in the cameras available to collectors. It is the smallest and most lightweight full-frame camera available today, by a long way. The camera also shows a major shift in Leica's product philosophy as it continues to produce beautifully crafted, class-leading film cameras while also flying the flag for digital photography.

Since the digital SLR revolution, cameras have remained big and bulky affairs. Even the most basic Nikon or Canon is crammed full of technology making it heavy and over-complicated. Manufacturers like to produce bodies with the latest bit of technology bolted on, be it high-definition video, complex menus or huge colour screens. But all these things detract from what a camera is intended to do ... take pictures. After shooting with an M9 for five minutes you will stop worrying about which button to press or what else your camera can do and just take pictures; it is an extremely refreshing experience if you are used to shooting with high-end DSLRs.

The M9 does away entirely with everything surrounding the modern day digital camera world. It has extremely simple menus, a simple viewfinder, no autofocus motor and no video option. The Leica does one thing and it does it better than any other digital camera on the market today: it takes pictures. Coupled with any lens that Leica produces, it will take sharper, more dynamic and more accurate images than anything else.

Because the M9 is a rangefinder with a digital sensor, it doesn't need a mirror like a DSLR does. This means that it is incredibly quiet and simple to use, there is none of the 'slap' produced by an SLR, helping the photographer to remain inconspicuous. The rangefinder patch that the M9 comes with is of Leica's usual high standards and represents the best coupled focusing system you can buy.

Unlike Leica's previous attempts at digital, the M8 and M8.2, the M9 can truly compete with other mainstream DSLRs. The M8 and M8.2 just couldn't quite manage the high ISO performance or dynamic range of a camera such as the 5D MKII or D700. The M9 however had its full frame CCD sensor especially developed by Kodak for the body. This means that the camera is totally usable all the way up to ISO 1600, and even after this, images are wholly acceptable. It is also important to remember that the size and weight of a Leica, coupled with some of the company's ridiculously fast lenses (the f0.95 Noctilux for example) allows you far lower hand-held shutter speeds.

The M9 is the best digital camera on the market today. But it has one major flaw: it is also one of the most expensive, at around £5,000. For the majority of amateur photographers it will forever remain out of reach. The digital revolution has brought photography to everyone and enabled people to cheaply and easily benefit from its joys. But cameras seem to have come full circle. The Leica remains the most simple yet the most expensive but the DSLR continues to get more complex. For those of us who are just starting out I can think of nothing better than a Leica, but then who spends that kind of money on a first camera? Perhaps the saddest thing about it is, the M9 will sit in many peoples display cabinets and not see the proper use it deserves.

All we need now is for Canon or Nikon to take a leaf out of Leica's book and produce something like the M9 that all of us can afford.